Validation of the Turkish Version of the Surgical Fear Questionnaire

Abstract

Purpose: Preoperative surgical fear is an emotional reaction that can be observed in many patients who are waiting to undergo a surgical procedure. The Surgical Fear Questionnaire (SFQ) was originally developed to determine the level of fear in patients who are to undergo surgery; this study aims to translate the questionnaire into the Turkish language and to test the validity and reliability of this Turkish version.

Design: Methodological research model.

Methods: The population of this methodological study included the patients who presented to surgical clinics at a university hospital in Turkey between January and August 2016 and were scheduled to undergo elective surgery; the sample involved 405 patients who met the inclusion criteria.

Findings: Results of the analyses showed that the SFQ can be used with two subscales-the S subscale, which shows the short-term consequences, and the L subscale, which shows the long-term consequences of surgery. The mean score of the patients was 18.03 ± 11.44 on the former, 19.52 ± 11.87 on the latter, and 37.55 ± 21.11 for the entire questionnaire. The Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.96 for the SFQ-S subscale, 0.90 for the SFQ-L subscale, and 0.93 for the entire questionnaire.

Conclusions: In this study, the translated SFQ was found to have a similar structure to the original questionnaire and a high level of validity and reliability and therefore can be used in Turkey.

Keywords: Surgical Fear Questionnaire; perioperative; preoperative; reliability; surgical fear; validity.